ROSHONARA Choudhry is the female Muslim student tried to murder her local MP Stephen Timms on May 14, 2010. She says she as inspired to do it by al-Qaeda and internet sermons given by man-of-the-moment Anwar al-Awlaki, the man behind the Yemen bombs and billed as the “spiritual leader” of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

Choudhry says she wanted to kill Timms, a former government minister, for his support for the war in Iraq.

At the Old Bailey, Choudhry is found guilty of attempted murder charge and two counts of having an offensive weapon. She stabbed Timms twice in the stomach with a knife.

She told police:

“I was not going to stop until somebody made me. I was trying to kill him.”

Adding:

“I was hoping to get revenge for the people of Iraq.”

At the time of her arrest Anorak was hot on anyone who emphasised the woman’s Muslim clothing and appearance. But that look proves to be central to the story. She was not crazed as first reported. She was a woman on a mission.

But still the media is not consistent in how the would-be killer is described.

Occidentalism has a very old history and can be variously described. But one unifying theme is a fear and dislike of modernity in all its forms. It can be leftwing and anti-British or American on imperialist grounds or it can be rightwing, rooted in religion or cultural objections, nostalgia for an idyllic rural past, for example.

A Muslim woman tried to kill a Labour MP by stabbing him in the stomach ‘in revenge’ for him voting for the Iraq War, a court heard today.

As Timms told the jury:

“I was a little puzzled because a Muslim woman dressed in that way wouldn’t normally be willing to shake a man’s hand, still less to take the initiative to do so, but that is what she was doing. She lunged at me with her right hand.”

Says Choudhry:

“I purposefully walked round the side of the desk so I could get close to him. He pointed for me to sit down on the chair but instead I walked towards him with my left hand out as if I wanted to shake his hand.

“Then I pulled the knife out of my bag and I hit him in the stomach with it. I put it in the top part of his stomach like when you punch someone.”

So. Why did she do it – because was a Muslim, a radical student, a woman or a fan of Saddam Hussein? Or did she do it because she an individual with free will and just wanted to..?